


Until We Fall Through

by WillowWeaver



Category: WandaVision (TV)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:01:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29908404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillowWeaver/pseuds/WillowWeaver
Summary: Wanda and Agatha enemies to friends to lovers because its what we deserve. Picks up one month after Wanda left for her cabin. Wanda realizes she may have been a bit too cruel trapping Agatha as Agnes. Will be pretty slow burn. Will earn its rating in later chapters.
Relationships: Agatha Harkness/Wanda Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff/Agatha Harkness
Comments: 76
Kudos: 290





	1. And the Tighter You Grip, the Harder I'm Pulling

_“You’re not sorry, you’re cruel.”_

For the majority of her time at the cabin, Wanda had been so preoccupied with the Darkhold that she could avoid reflecting on what she had just been through. Exhausted from poring over the text for so long – and, admittedly, exhausted from far too many losses, weighing on her all at once – she finally laid her head down on her pillow. For the first time since she came to the cabin she let both her corporeal and astral form rest. Just as she was drifting off, a familiar scene appeared to her.

She could see Agnes’ face. _Not Agnes, Agatha,_ she reminded herself. She could see Agatha’s face just as she transformed her, trapped her, in the form of the nosy neighbor she had come to know during her time in the hex. She heard Agatha’s final pleas and watched her pained realization at what was about to happen. She heard Wanda’s apology and knew it was not genuine and Wanda couldn’t help but smirk at Agatha’s response. She was used to the people around her seeing her as weak, as easily manipulated. Agatha showed that she saw the true Wanda, yes she had been hurt, but she knew what she wanted and was powerful enough to bring it into being.

Agatha was right, of course, she was being cruel, but Wanda had felt in the moment that the cruelty was justified. During her time in the Hex, she had truly come to see Agnes as a friend. Wanda had not had a true friend since Vision, not one who was uncomplicated, who did not see Wanda as something broken or replaceable or simply useful. She had been a part of a team, sure, but the friendships she had made there were under such pressure, they were fragile. So, walking into Agatha’s basement, losing the friend she knew and realizing she had been used _again_ and had lost someone _again_ had set her off.

So, her decision to turn Agatha back into Agnes had not been an entirely unselfish one. She needed just one win that day and keeping just one friend who no one else would miss felt like the way to get it. Now, drifting off to sleep, she wondered if she had made the right choice and felt an odd pang of guilt, even as she convinced herself that Agatha did not deserve it.

Then came the nightmares. She had had them since she was a child, so she was used to them. It was part of why she had put off truly resting for so long. She knew they would come and she knew that she would have to replay each of her losses all over again in them. Her final nightmares were new though. She saw Agnes, just as she had known her. She was asleep at her house in Westview but something was wrong. Her face was twisted in pain as she slept, her body tense and sweating. She cried out in her sleep. At first, Wanda could not make out what she was saying, but as Wanda focused, her voice became clearer. She was crying out for Wanda, pleading really.

“Please…Wanda” she knotted her eyebrows into a pained face that Wanda knew too well “Please… Wake me”

Wanda jolted awake, hardly rested with the horrors of her nightmares still fresh in her head. She was shaken, guilty that she may have caused the type of pain that she saw on Agatha’ s face. She shook it off as she fully woke up. It was only a nightmare, something her head had made up. She was sure she had fixed the spell she put Agatha under, had broken the psychic link that forced those under her influence to live out her pain. She was sure, but just could not shake the guilt that settled at the bottom of her stomach. She had to know for sure. She had to go to see Agnes for herself. For all Agatha had put her through, Wanda could not sit by and let someone else suffer. And, though she could hardly admit it to herself, she did miss Agnes and the month alone at the cabin had her aching for someone to talk to.

So it was decided. She would go and see Agnes, but only to make sure that she was okay. It would be a quick trip.


	2. Can You Feel the Ground Beneath?

Wanda decided to drive back to see Agnes. She knew she would have to keep a low profile since she had only barely avoided an angry mob the last time she was in town. There was something satisfying about it too. The simplicity of driving to visit someone, of driving to visit a friend. But no, she had to keep reminding herself, Agatha was not her friend. She was the reason it had all come crumbling down. Wanda had had things under control, hadn’t she? It was Agatha’s meddling that forced her to choose. She had a perfect world and she could have stayed in it just a bit longer.

Pulling up to the house, Wanda couldn’t help but remember her time in its basement, reliving each and every of her worst moments as Agatha opened door after door into her painful past. She had blocked off the witch’s lair when she trapped her in her suburban alter ego. She had also relocated the previous resident, Ralph, to a new home away from Agnes. She had created a perfect, normal life for the woman, albeit a very lonely one. As she parked, Wanda could see Agnes along the side of the house, wearing her normal clothes, now decade appropriate, weeding the small herb garden along the side of the house. Agnes saw her pull up and smiled up at her. Wanda had to gather herself as she watched the woman walked over to her. _I’m only here to make sure she is okay_ , she reminded herself.

Agnes began to speak to her as soon as Wanda opened the car door.

“Wanda!” she called in her upbeat, bewitching voice “It’s so nice of you to come for a visit! I wish you had let me know you were coming. How have you been?”

Wanda froze. She had left so soon after transforming Agnes last time that she really hadn’t been sure what to expect. The friendly greeting caught her off guard after so long alone at the cabin. Before she could even really realize what she was doing, she slipped right back into her character, playing off of Agnes just as she had before.

“ Agnes, it’s so nice to see you! I was just in town and decided I’d stop in to see my favorite neighbor.”

It was too easy, too easy to pretend everything was fine and continue on like this. Wanda longed for it, but chided herself. This is not what she was here for. She immediately felt guilty at how quickly she had fallen back into her old role, at how much she wanted to simply sit with Agnes and talk about nothing of real importance. Her mind wandered back to what she had seen the night before, Agnes, writhing in pain, Agatha, asking Wanda to please wake her up. No, she had to hurry up and figure out what she had come here for so she could leave. She had to get out of this town before it drew her in again.

“Agnes,” she said, smiling at the woman in front of her on the lawn, “I am feeling very thirsty after my trip, would you mind if I came in for some water and to sit down for a bit?”

“Why, of course you can hon! What an awful hostess I am, I should have invited you in sooner. It’s just that you always look so good I never would have guessed you were the least bit travel-weary.”

Agatha laughed to herself and Wanda grinned at the compliment. They walked into the witch’s house together and Agatha busied herself in the kitchen while Wanda took a seat in the living room. She focused her energy on different spots around the room, casting the same runes she had before in much smaller forms in a circle about the entire house. She knew that the information she needed wasn’t any that Agnes could give her. She would need to speak directly to Agatha and she was more nervous than she cared to admit to do so, considering the last time she saw the woman she was shooting her out of the sky and imprisoning her in her own mind.

Wanda shuddered a bit at the thought. Agnes, nearly bouncing into the room with a pitcher of tea and two glasses in hand looked at her, worried.

“Everything okay, dear?” she asked, setting the glasses down on the table before her and taking a seat on the couch next to her.

Wanda smiled up at her. She knew she had shaped Agnes’s personality, but there was so much to it that wasn’t simply coming from Wanda. Agnes was somehow so perceptive, so caring in a way that Wanda knew wasn’t coming from her spell.

“It’s not, Agnes, I’m sorry” and she was.

Wanda lifted her hand to Agnes’s head before she could respond, making Agnes’s eyes glow a soft red, before her face changed. Agnes’s soft smile faded into angry lines and Wanda watched as Agatha revealed herself once more. Immediately, she stood from her spot on the couch, lifting her arms and shaping them into what Wanda knew must be the movements for a spell. Wanda never moved from her spot on the couch, instead simply watching as Agatha once again realized that Wanda had used her own knowledge against her.

“You just keep making me regret showing you that, don’t you _Scarlet Witch_ ”

Agatha said the name mockingly. Wanda knew that the older witch didn’t think she was worthy of the title. It wasn’t up to Agatha, though. She was the Scarlet Witch and she knew it now. She could tell too, that part of Agatha was weary of that, was both intrigued and scared about what Wanda might be capable of.

“So, did you finally realize that I’m of more use to you when I’m not near brain dead?” Agatha’s voice was back to its natural tone. She sounded like she was trying to sound bored, but Wanda could tell that some part of her was happy at the possibility that she might be involved in whatever was happening.

“Oh come on, Agn- Agatha. You have a comfortable life here, don’t you?”

Agatha rolled her eyes, “unlike you I have bigger dreams than a picket fence and PTA meetings.”

Wanda frowned at the comment. She thought of her boys, of their father, and of all the life she never got to live with them. Agatha noticed her going quiet and quickly brought her out of her thoughts.

“Well, I know you didn’t just come here because you missed me. Why are you here, Wanda?”

Wanda met her eyes, pulling herself out of her reveries and remembering the business she came her for.

“I need to know” she sighed and readjusted on the couch “I need to know how you’ve been sleeping.”

Agatha looked confused for a second, then looked away from Wanda.

“Ah, yes, that.”

It was a bit too intimate, sharing a person’s nightmares with them. When Agatha had first had the nightmares, she thought they were her own, warped by Wanda’s spell. She was used to night terrors, to seeing the faces of ghosts from her own past when she was actually able to sleep. A few nights in, though, she realized it was different now. She recognized the faces not from her own past, but from her time spent wandering through Wanda’s memories with her. For a month now she had been forced to live Wanda’s nightmares every night when she slept, rather than her own. On the rare chance she didn’t have nightmares, it was Wanda’s dreams she saw, too. Somehow, that felt even more invasive.

Wanda sat for a moment, not knowing what to do now that what she worried was true had been confirmed. She couldn’t stomach putting Agatha back under that same spell, not knowing that she would be forcing her to live every one of Wanda’s pains alongside her. Agatha noticed her hesitation and saw a way out of her housewife hell, even if only temporarily.

“I can teach you how to fix the spell, you know. How to maintain it while breaking the psychic link I have to your dreams.”

Agatha tried to sound casual but really she was desperate for any kind of connection to magic. She missed how her powers felt and would do anything to have them back. Without them she felt too vulnerable and there was far too little to occupy her mind.Wanda knew that the woman must have some kind of plan, some manipulation she would use to escape. In the moment, though, she was mostly intrigued by the idea of learning from her. So far Agatha had only taught her one thing, and Wanda was already using it regularly. What else would she be capable of if only she had the right teacher?

“All right,” Wanda said “but so long as you are lucid we can’t stay here. I can’t risk you.. or me… putting this town in danger again. We’ll go to my cabin.”

Agatha visibly perked up. Wanda still stayed on her guard.

“And you will remain powerless. You can teach me without having the magic yourself.”

Agatha frowned, but nodded.

“So where is this cabin of yours? I just love a house that reeks of fish and pine.”


	3. Give a Little, Get a Lot

Wanda had learned a spell from the Darkhold in her month studying to bind Agatha’s magic temporarily without having to cast runes around every space she was in. To bind her magic, Wanda sat working over her for a bit, weaving the strands of her power into tightly wound circles that fed only into themselves, cutting off the free flowing magic that could move in and out of the world around it that she now knew a witch needed to do her work. She could feel the strength of the magic, it coursed through Agatha in a steady pulse, far different from the irregular bursts of power Wanda could feel when she used her own. As she worked she could feel the restraint, Agatha’s firm control over her powers.

Beneath that, though, she could feel something wilder, something more akin to how her own magic flowed within her. Agatha clearly had plenty of restraint, but underneath it Wanda could feel just how strong her magic was. Beyond skills, Agatha had a steady strength that flowed through her. It was so different from Wanda’s own magic, so seemingly effortless like the constant push and pull of the ocean. And yet Wanda could sense the same kind of brutality beneath the waves, Agatha was a force of nature that couldn’t help but stomp out those who stood in her way. Her magic actively reached out as Wanda worked. It was an almost unsettling feeling. Every time Wanda grabbed a strand to weave it back into itself, it’s tendrils reached right back, wrapping themselves over Wanda’s magic for just a moment. They seemed to almost examine it, then, just as quickly, they retreated back into themselves, seemingly having learned what they needed to. Or, sensing the unpredictability of the magic they were exploring, retreating out of self-preservation.

Agatha looked nervous as Wanda worked, probably afraid of a botched move causing her to lose her magic for good. But her eyes also monitored Wanda’s moves with suspicion. Being able to work with another witch’s magic was certainly not for beginners and was not something Wanda could have taught herself. In fact, the ability to manipulate other’s magic was exactly the spell that Agatha had been forbidden from learning herself, all those years ago. Only elder witches in her coven were allowed to have it and Agatha knew exactly why that was. A witch’s magic was a part of her, was bound to every cell of her being and wrapped around every nerve end and neuron. Messing with someone else’s magic when you were inexperienced could get messy, like doing brain surgery without any training.

And yet, Wanda seemed to know what she was doing. As she watched, Agatha had an inkling of where she may have learned it, but did not want to push too hard. She was still in a precarious position and knew Wanda could decide to leave her as Agnes for good if she got too far out of line. She would take her time, plan her steps wisely, and figure out what exactly the younger witch was up to while also training her to control herself just a little bit better. Even as Agatha felt Wanda’s magic manipulating her own, she could feel its raw power, could feel the way it was just barely restrained within Wanda’s skin. She knew what the witch was capable of and what she was capable of bringing about. She would have to teach her some restraint, and fast, especially considering the emotional state Wanda had just been through. Agatha had seen what she was capable of when she was hurt and for everyone’s sake, she needed to keep Wanda contained.

“Well that’s certainly a new trick you’ve got there, but you know it’s rude to bend another witch’s magic without asking first. Maybe our first lesson will have to be in etiquette.”

Wanda looked at her, trying to feign annoyance “You seemed to have forgotten etiquette when you bound me up in your basement and carried me around like a ragdoll.”

Agatha couldn’t help but smile at that, “And here I thought we were just having a little fun. I mean why have a dungeon if I don’t get to tie someone up in it.”

Wanda smirked back at her but said nothing. That was another thing she didn’t have to put back into Agnes’s personality herself – the shameless flirting. She had to admit that she enjoyed it. Agnes’s compliments and innuendos certainly didn’t hurt her confidence. Vision was sweet, was exactly what she needed when she met him. But she had always missed this when she was with him, had missed talking to someone who was not quite so innocent. Vision made her want to be a better person, of course, but she felt there was a part of herself she had to hide from him. There was some part of herself she couldn’t show him, but Agatha seemed to see it all on her own.

Wanda finished her work and stood up from the couch, “We’ll leave for the cabin in the morning.”

“Why wait? I’ve seen you teleport before. We could be there in seconds.”

“I’d prefer to drive, it’ll give us time to talk through what you plan to teach me first.”

“All that power and your preferred mode of transportation is a Buick,” Agatha scoffed. “That power truly is wasted in your hands.”

Wanda glared at her “I know how you feel about how worthy I am of my magic, already. Why don’t you keep your thoughts on the matter to yourself next time?”

“Around a mind reader? Sure that makes total sense,” but Agatha was quiet after that.

Wanda stood up from the couch. She knew perfectly well she could have them to the cabin in seconds. She wanted time to properly look through the rooms in the basement, though. If Agatha had kept the Darkhold down there, she wanted to make sure no other artifacts would be left there, waiting for some S.W.O.R.D. agent to tear them apart or fashion them into a weapon for their own use. Beyond that, if she was being entirely truthful, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to the cabin just yet. The time she had spent there had not been her happiest and it had been terribly lonely. She missed the sounds of people going about their business, even if they were much more subtle in the suburbs than they were in the city. It was nice, hearing the sounds of children playing in the distance, dogs barking, cars pulling in after work. She wanted to be here just a bit longer, to take it in before she went back to seclusion.

Wanda could tell from the way that Agatha watched her that she had not believed for a second that Wanda actually wanted to stay just so she could enjoy mix tapes and the breeze from a car window on the way home. Agatha said nothing of her suspicions, still afraid to step too far out of line.

“Fine,” Agatha said, finally breaking the silence in the room “but I’m not cooking dinner for a woman who can materialize a feast in seconds.”

Wanda smiled at this “I’ll make us dinner.”

And she did, by hand, she was surprised to see that the garden in the back of the house was actually very well taken care of. She picked some of the vegetables from it, then moved to the small beds on the side of the house to pick some fresh herbs. She could feel Agatha watching her as she did so. She made a modest meal, something simple but hearty that reminded her of her mother’s cooking. As she sat down to eat, she heard Agatha creep into the kitchen and grab herself some. She sat at the table across from Wanda and they ate in an almost comfortable silence. Neither would admit it, but it was nice to not have to eat alone.

Even as the unbearably peppy Agnes, Agatha could feel the familiar pangs of loneliness that she had felt for far too long ever since she was no longer a part of a coven. Growing up with connections that strong, that elemental, to a group of women, it had always been hard to adjust to life on her own. It was worth it of course, for the freedom it allowed, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t miss it sometimes, when she had no one to talk to about her latest triumph or trial. So she was content to sit in silence with Wanda, despite all they had been through. It almost made her long for their meaningless banter that had felt so easy when they were both playing their roles in the Hex. Almost.

They said almost nothing together as they moved about the house that night, Agatha pretending to get ready for bed while secretly listening to what Wanda was up to and Wanda pretending to not be exhausted while waiting for Agatha to finally fall asleep. Wanda sat in the living room, listening to the sounds of suburbia go by outside and to the soft creaking of Agatha moving around the house upstairs. It was nice to have a moment to be still and she almost drifted off on the couch. When the sounds of movement from upstairs finally stopped, Wanda waited another hour, hoping that Agatha would fall asleep if she sensed that Wanda was still for long enough. After the hour had passed with no further sounds, she crept into the basement, creating an opening in her own wards to let herself pass.

The basement opened first into the familiar chamber where the Darkhold had once sat. The runes were still active, so Wanda did not stay for long, passing through one of the hallways leading out of the room and hoping that it wouldn’t be too much to explore so she could finally get some rest. She searched two rooms and found nothing that seemed useful. It seemed as though Agatha had been examining some items from the neighborhood in one of the rooms, they had since turned back to their original form but were surrounded by a variety of unfamiliar instruments that were clearly being used to take them apart. The next room was nearly bare with just a single doorway carved into the wall and a hallway leading further away. No, Wanda realized, it wasn’t a doorway, but simply the outline of one, covered in runes and sigils that were unfamiliar. Wanda wondered what exactly the door was for but continued on.

Mapping the basement to the neighborhood above in her head, wanda realized that it must be enchanted in some way. The basement seemed far more expansive than was possible if it was in Westview. She pondered how it could be so much bigger than expected and was so deep in thought that she hardly noticed the faint purple glow of the next room. Walking into the room, the hair on the back of Wanda’s neck stood up. Her foot caught ever so slightly on something on the floor just at the threshold of the room. Before she could react, two vines that had been growing along the wall started to glow a much brighter purple and snapped out to bind each of her hands. She was pulled against the wall, accidentally letting out a tiny yelp as her back hit the hard stone.

“Damnit” she said to herself, pulling against the vines.

It was no use, they had become completely immobile again, the purple glow still emitting from them, but having faded back to a faint glow. Try as she might to break them with her magic, the vines hardly budged. Wanda couldn’t move her arms enough to cast anything with any real strength behind it. Just as she was deciding how she’d get herself out of the situation, she saw a figure move in the shadows just beyond the room. Her stomach sank. What – or who – did Agatha have lurking down here? The figure disappeared again and Wanda couldn’t crane her body enough to see where it was in the next room. She could hear the faintest of footsteps, though, and they sounded like they were getting closer. Wanda pulled more desperately at the vines, now fueled by adrenaline and panic. She felt them budge ever so slightly. If she could just free her hands enough to cast something, she would be fine. She felt the vines loosen even more around her hands at the thought. Before the fear could set in too much, the figure began to move from the shadows, revealing the very witch that had set the trap Wanda was now stuck in.

As she emerged out into the light, Wanda could see the smile curling itself across Agatha’s lips first, then the whole woman, stepping out into the room just as she had when she revealed who she truly was to Wanda all those weeks ago.

“Oh Wanda, if you wanted to recreate our little game again, you could have just asked me, you know.”

“The house is warded Agatha, if you leave me here you’ll rot right along with me.” Wanda was angry, upset at herself for having been caught off guard by the witch, _again_.

“Easy tiger.” Agatha jeered, clearly enjoying being in control of the situation again, “Regardless of how good you look tied up in purple vines, I wasn’t planning on leaving you here. I saw the wards and besides, I’d prefer to get my magic back some day.”

She stepped over some invisible trap that Wanda could not see and approached her. Still standing in front of Wanda, she met her eyes and reached around her to the wall she was currently bound against. Agatha pressed a panel just out of Wanda’s reach on the wall, hardly visible against the rest of the stone. As she looked closer, Wanda could see the panel was slightly raised, with an intricate sigil over it. As soon as Agatha pressed it in, the vines released Wanda, who nearly spilled onto the floor as the trap she had been pulling against gave way.

“Now would you like to tell me what you’re looking for? Because I’d prefer you didn’t mar that beautiful face of yours by finding one of my more fatal traps.”


	4. Leave Your Hands Open and Waiting

“There’s nothing else down here, Wanda.”

Wanda stepped forward into the next room, following closely behind Agatha as she led Wanda through the remaining rooms.

“Forgive me for checking for myself, but you haven’t exactly been fully honest with me in the past.”

“I have no reason to lie to you now” Agatha said and Wanda looked at her skeptically “I have no reason to lie to you now _about this,_ ” she added.

Wanda seemed satisfied by that, “All right, let’s go.”

She turned around, walking back the way she had come; trying to follow the exact steps she had taken originally.

“Not that way!” Agatha jumped forward, grabbing Wanda’s arm and pulling her backward. “Why don’t I lead us out of here?”

Wanda nodded and stepped back behind her.

Agatha spoke as she walked, following some invisible pathway that Wanda couldn’t see, “Well, at least we know what our first lesson is going to be: traps for dummies – how to recognize and escape them.”

Wanda looked around then added “Second lesson, how to Mary Poppins myself a dungeon that’s bigger on the inside than the outside.”

“Oooh, perceptive! Good girl.” Agatha said as she continued forward, Wanda watching and mirroring her every step.

Wanda felt her face get slightly red at the praise. She was glad that Agatha was facing away from her.

The two women emerged from the basement and headed into the main house. They parted ways, Wanda heading for the couch as Agatha headed to the stairs, but paused on the first step.

“There’s a guest room upstairs, you know. You don’t have to sleep on the couch. I mean - you could materialize yourself a California King down here if you really wanted, but why don’t we save the bending of reality for a more serious situation. First door on the right.” Agatha headed upstairs, not waiting to see if Wanda would take her up on the offer.

Wanda hadn’t even thought of the couch as an uncomfortable place to sleep. She and her brother had been shuffled around so often that a couch was a relative luxury of a sleeping situation compared to many she had been in. She went up the stairs and veered to the right into the guest room. As she did, she could see Agatha pass one door with a yellow sign that read “Man Cave – Enter At Your Own Risk” nailed haphazardly to it and enter a room further down the hall. Wanda crawled immediately into bed, finally succumbing to the exhaustion she could never seem to get rid of these days. Her nightmares were not as bad as usual and she was actually able to get some rest for parts of the night.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, though, before it was light out, she was woken up by a familiar sound. It was the same struggling sound she had heard in the dream that brought her back here to begin with. It was muffled through the wall, but she could hear Agatha crying out. She couldn’t make out what she was saying but could hear the tone, could hear the fear and anguish in her voice. Wanda sprung up from her own bed and rushed to the end of the hall. She paused at the door; feeling like opening it was an intrusion of some kind. Hearing another cry from Agatha, she decided the intrusion was justified and rushed into the room. She could just make out Agatha’s figure on the bed.

“Agatha. Agatha, wake up ” she said softly, gently shaking one of the sleeping woman’s shoulders.

Agatha seemed to rouse only slightly, looking up at Wanda with searching and confused eyes “Catherine?” she asked, only partially awake.

“No, it’s Wanda” Wanda stepped back, giving the woman space “You were having a nightmare, I could hear you from my room.” She paused for just a second, thinking, then said “I thought you wouldn’t have my nightmares anymore, now that you’re no longer Agnes.”

Agatha sat up, still orienting herself. She looked up at Wanda again, more lucid now but with sleep still in her eyes.

“My brain is perfectly capable of making nightmares for itself, buttercup. I lived through the witch trials, it has plenty of material to work with.”

“Oh,” Wanda replied, a bit embarrassed that she hadn’t considered that. “Well are you all right now?”

“I’m fine, apart from being woken up in the middle of the night by my house guest.”

Wanda nodded, “I’ll let you get back to sleep then.” She turned and took a step to the door but stopped, “Who’s Catherine?”

Agatha looked like she had been struck for a moment. Her back straightened and her lips form a thin line. She settled into a purposefully neutral face before answering “No one in particular.”

“It’s just, you said ‘Catherine’ when you –“

“Go back to bed, Wanda. Just soundproof your room, I’m sure you can manage that.” Agatha looked slightly embarrassed as she said this and turned back over, facing away from Wanda and ending any possibility of further conversation.

Wanda stood there for just a few more seconds, wanting to ask Agatha more, but deciding against it. She walked back to her room, considered soundproofing it and lifted her arms to do so. She remembered all the times her brother had woken her up from her nightmares, all the times Vision had. She remembered the relief, knowing that they were simply in her head and knowing that there was someone there with her. She left the room as it was, listening as she fell asleep for any further commotion in the next room but the house was quiet for the rest of the night and both women finally had a few hours of sleep unburdened by any nightmares.

The next morning, Wanda woke up to the sounds of Agatha moving about the kitchen downstairs. She kept her eyes closed for a minute and just sat in the feeling of the still warm bed she lay wrapped up in, the sounds of the world just waking up outside, the smell of coffee being made, and the light filtering through the window and gently welcoming her to the new day. She had one calm, uncomplicated moment before the familiar heaviness settled onto her chest. She reached her arm out into the empty bed beside her. Suddenly the bed felt far too big, the room far too empty. She climbed out of bed and headed to what she rightfully assumed was the bathroom, the only other door upstairs. She got ready for the day, trying not to think too much about anything but what she was immediately doing, and headed downstairs.

“Good, you’re up.” Agatha greeted her as she walked into the kitchen, “I figured we should get an early start, since you still insist on driving to your cabin. I made some coffee. Figured you would want it since I didn’t let you get a full nights sleep last night.” Agatha held out a cup of coffee and it felt like a small thanks, in the only way the woman could muster without hurting her own ego.

“You all packed and ready to go?” Wanda said, giving Agatha an appreciate smile as she accepted the mug of coffee.

“Ready when you are, toots” she said, sipping her own mug of coffee.

They both took their time getting out the door. It was nice, not having to rush or having any pressing matter to attend to. There was plenty they needed to accomplish, sure, but somehow it all felt far off. They walked out to the car together and Agatha opened the door, then stood still. Wanda looked back at the house, still not fully ready to leave but knowing it was time to go. Agatha was still stood still, with her face tilted up into the sunlight, closing her eyes and letting it warm her face for a moment.

She took a moment like this, while Wanda was still partially distracted, then spoke, “Actually, it’s such a beautiful day. I think I’ll take my broom.”

Wanda was shaken out of her daydream, not sure if she heard Agatha correctly, she turned toward her, her mouth starting to open to question the statement when she saw that Agatha was already watching her. Agatha smiled slyly at Wanda’s reaction, and then laughed to herself as she climbed into the car, clearly poking fun at just how little Wanda knew about the reality of witches. Wanda smiled too, realizing the absurdity of the situation, distracted from her longing to stay at the house just a bit longer. She climbed into the driver’s seat and they set off for the cabin.


	5. Honey and Gold for the Taking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all who are keeping up with this fic and commenting. It's so nice to know I'm not the only one who loves this ship!

“Yeah, this isn’t gonna work for me.” Agatha stood in the living room of the cabin, having hardly looked around before she declared it inadequate.

“Well, I told you it was a cabin.” Wanda said, still standing in the doorway, “What exactly were you expecting?”

Agatha didn’t respond immediately, instead walking out onto the porch and looking back at the space to survey it.

“Traps can wait, lesson one will be adapting your surroundings without changing the essential makeup of items. We need to do some building today, but I’d rather we didn’t end up with a 1950’s split-level. We can start with something relatively basic. There are building materials all around this cabin. Focus on reshaping them into a new room, focus on what already exists in the universe around you and how you can manipulate it.”

Agatha continued further out into the space in front of the cabin, gesturing for Wanda to follow her. Wanda followed then stood beside her, trying to focus as Agatha had told her to. She was distracted though, could feel how closely she was being watched. She had never had anyone watch how she used her powers before. It made her feel oddly self-conscious, like she had something to prove. She stood, beginning to twist her fingers around the minute threads shaping the materiality of the trees and rock scattered around them on the plot to grasp and reshape them. It felt different then much of the magic she was used to doing.

Agatha grabbed her hand, adjusting her arm higher and breaking Wanda’s concentration.

“Your really never even learned the most basic of forms, did you?” she stepped behind Wanda and held her waist, speaking as she adjusted how Wanda’s torso was positioned, then using her own feet to push Wanda’s into a more stable position. “ Your form should be balanced, with your feet and base rooted while your upper body is able to pull fluidly from the ambient energy in the world around you. All of the energy should be pulled and pushed from right here,” She placed her hand on the center of Wanda’s back and Wanda could swear for a moment that Agatha still had her magic, as she felt a warmth and electricity radiate out from exactly the point her hand had been indicating. “The force of your magic should come from your chest, not your arms.”

After Agatha finished speaking through this lesson, Wanda waited a moment for her to step back, but the woman never did, instead holding her loosely in the proper stance. She looked back at Agatha, who indicated with a slight nod for her to go ahead. Wanda took a deep breath and attempted to refocus, hyperaware of Agatha’s hands still lingering on her waist. She did as she had been instructed, moving the magic through her and focusing the force of it through her chest, manipulating it from brute force to finer magic as it flowed down her arms into her fingers. She watched the materials around her move, far more effortlessly than she had ever moved that much at once before. She focused on what she wanted to reshape it into, not just picturing the end product, but also how it would construct itself. The new addition took shape before her, melding itself with the existing cabin.

“Atta girl!” Agatha yelled, squeezing Wanda’s waist just a bit as she did so, then letting go “and that’s how you increase your property price without tearing apart the fabric of reality.”

Wanda beamed. She had never had much feedback on what she was doing. Sure, she knew whether she had won a fight or not, but controlling her magic like this felt so good, felt like she was shaping her power for once, not the other way around. It felt nice to have someone guiding her, and more than that it felt good to have someone else share in her excitement when she mastered some knew skill. She had learned plenty of new things from the Darkhold, sure, but this felt so much more intentional and shared. It felt like someone had her back again.

Agatha was already headed back to the house to look at the new renovation. When Wanda went into the new room, Agatha was already walking around it appraising Wanda’s creation “Now this, this is much better.” She motioned to the decorations and bedding “And you even outfitted it just for me, how sweet of you, dear.”

She smiled at Wanda, who was still taking in the room and had not realized until Agatha made the comment that she _had_ outfitted it just for Agatha. The room was decorated in the witch’s signature purple with details and patterns from various outfits that she had worn in their time flipping through decades. Wanda had not made any conscious decision to do so, but somehow Agatha’s tastes had gotten in her head anyway and made her shape the room to look completely different from the rest of the cabin. If she was being honest with herself, she knew deep down that it was because she wanted Agatha to feel comfortable at the cabin. She wanted her to stay there so she could finally share it with someone. If she was being really honest with herself, she also knew that it felt good to hear Agatha’s delight at Wanda’s abilities. It felt good to be praised by her.

“Oh, and a king bed too!” Agatha threw herself onto bed at the center of the room “Well now I just feel bad about that barracks of a room you’re sleeping in.” She propped herself up on her elbow and looked up at Wanda.

“I’ll be fine,” Wanda said “I can always just do the same thing to my room if I feel the need to.”

Wanda had thought about changing the cabin when she first arrived, making it more plush for herself, more homey. Before she could make any changes, though, a heavy guilt set in. The last time she tried to make a place feel more homey, she brain washed and puppeteered an entire town in the process. Something felt wrong about making the cabin comfortable for herself. So, she left it as it was and some part of her was happy, waking up in the single twin bed in the morning that she wouldn’t have to face the empty other side of a bigger bed.

“Well,” Agatha said, springing up from the bed “let’s get back to work. I still need a bathtub and ooooh” she looked back at Wanda, excited “how about you make me one of those big tubs with the jets?”

Wanda shook her head, but knew that she would oblige anyways.

Now, Agatha declared as she walked back outside, they were going to be learning about traps. By the time Agatha had walked her through the setup of, ways to recognize, and ways to dismantle the first common type of trap, it was already dark at the cabin and Wanda was starting to feel just how much the day had taken out of her. Towards the end of the last method to dismantle the trap, she felt herself slipping more and more, her exhaustion causing mistakes. Each mistake only frustrated her more and more and she tried to push herself through each wave of exhaustion as it came.

Agatha noticed this change in Wanda’s demeanor, “All right, that’s enough for tonight,” she said, placing her hand over the spot where Wanda was working.

“No, I can keep going” Wanda pushed her hand away, trying to get back to the work she had been doing.

“Wanda, stop.” This time Agatha grabbed Wanda’s hands directly and held them in her own “there’s no rush, we can pick things back up in the morning. I don’t want you overexerting yourself. With magic like yours, who knows what you could do if you got too tired.”

This seemed to get through to Wanda. Both women stood from where they had been working, the area now only lit by the porch light from the cabin. They parted ways in the living room again and Agatha paused for a moment in the doorway to her bedroom.

“You did good work today, Wanda.”

“Thank you.” Wanda replied, and she meant it. For all Agatha had put her through, she was appreciative to have help, to have guidance.

Agatha smiled “I’d say get your beauty rest, but with a face like that who needs it.”

Wanda laughed, shaking her head “Good night, Agatha” she said and headed into her room.

She laid down on the old twin bed in the center of her room. Behind her, she felt the radiating power of the Darkhold, flowing out from where she kept the book hidden. She tried to ignore it, had liked being out in the open air that afternoon, away from it’s pull. Besides her nightmares, it was the other thing that made her want to stay awake, the other thing that made her want to avoid this tiny, suffocating room that was far too empty with just her in it. Luckily, she was tired enough to fall asleep before being fully tempted into opening it, but when she finally did drift off, she could hear the screams of her two sons calling out for her all throughout the night in her dreams. 

In the next room over, Agatha lay awake, unsettled by just how much power she had seen Wanda wielding that day. Looking at the room that the younger witch had pulled from nowhere and shaped into being without even breaking a sweat, she thought again of the chapter dedicated to the Scarlet Witch in the book of the damned. She saw how quickly Wanda was learning, how quickly her powers were growing stronger and hoped that she would be able to help her control them in time. She hoped she could stop the inevitable, as foolish as that was to believe and, looking around at the room that Wanda had made her, thinking about the day they had spent together, she hoped too that she could keep Wanda safe from the fate she had been doomed to fulfill.


	6. And I Always Want It to be That Way

Wanda woke up the next morning to the now familiar sound of Agatha moving about the kitchen. It had only been two days now that she had woken to the sound, but she felt like she could get used to it. It started her day off so much better than waking up to the relative silence of the mountains. Agatha would certainly never be described by anyone as quiet and Wanda really enjoyed that. Vision was nearly silent as he moved around. Wanda could always tell that he didn’t feel entirely comfortable being embodied and was not used to interacting with the world in his new form. The most she could hear from him was when she could sense what was going on in his head and, when she could, she did her best to not intrude on the thoughts of those around her, for her sake as much as for theirs.

Agatha on the other hand had no trouble taking up space. Wanda had rarely met women who didn’t seem consistently hyperaware of exactly how much space they were taking up in the world. Wanda could somewhat sense that in Nat, but having been trained as a spy, she seemed to still have some of that hyperawareness most of the time, so Wanda rarely saw her relaxed enough that she let her guard down. Wanda knew that Agatha was always aware, was always tuned into the world around her, but something about her was also so oddly carefree for someone so experienced. Of course, Wanda could frequently see the heaviness of that experience, especially when Agatha thought that no one was looking. Most of the time, though, she moved about the world as if the world itself would move to get out of her way, rather than the other way around.

Listening closer now, she could hear music from the kitchen softly playing, probably from the small laptop that Wanda kept, but rarely used.

Walking out into the kitchen, Wanda could hear that Agatha was playing “Lola” and gently dancing around the kitchen as she worked. She was surprised at the song choice.

“The Kinks?” Wanda said and Agatha turned around from the work she had been doing on the counter “I would’ve thought you’d be more of a Fleetwood Mac fan.”

“I’m multifaceted enough to enjoy both, ya know. I mean, some of us actually lived through the 70’s. Not just in our heads, that is.”

Wanda always forgot just how much of history Agatha had lived through.

“I’m impressed you got that computer working.”

“Yeah, of course I did,” Agatha feigned being offended as she said this. “I’m not so ancient and out of touch that I don’t know how to work a computer on my own. What do you think, I’m walking around with a flip phone in my pocket? I’ve spent hundreds of years learning the secrets of the universe, Wanda, I’m capable of figuring out a Macbook.”

“Fair enough.”

The song switched and Wanda sat for a moment listening to Patti Smith sing. Agatha handed her a cup of coffee, practically dancing over to Wanda, who took it just as appreciatively as the morning before. She really could not sleep well in that room and she knew it had nothing to do with the décor or the size of the bed.

“So what do you have planned for lessons today?”

Agatha made a gesture to outside the cabin and Wanda just then noticed just how much it was raining outside “Well, I figured we’d do some indoor lessons today. We’ve talked about how to construct physical traps to keep others at bay, so now we can talk about mental ones. Lesson number three: how to protect your thoughts.”

“Shouldn’t I learn more about learning the thoughts of others first?”

“Oh god no, Wanda. Always use protection when mind reading” she smirked a bit at this “Who knows what other people’s brains could give you? Get yourself some breakfast and get dressed and we’ll get started.”

Wanda had forgotten about both. When she had been here alone, she usually just wore what was most comfortable, even if it was her pajamas from the night before, and only got breakfast when she remembered to, which was rarely. She did as she was told, throwing on something that was still plenty comfortable, but was at least clean and then grabbing a quick breakfast of leftovers. It was always odd, coming back from high stakes missions or from her fast paced life to having to take care of her body day to day. She resented all the little human things she had to do, just to keep herself going. They all seemed so insignificant, seemed to take up so much time and move so much slower than everything else in her life.

Agatha looked into the room as Wanda emerged from it, frowning at the glimpse she caught of it before Wanda closed the door. She was curious, considering how easily Wanda had made such a plush room for her, why the woman wouldn’t do the same for herself. She pushed the thought away, figured she could bring it up later at some point, when Wanda was more likely to feel comfortable answering. With both of them ready for the day, Wanda sat beside Agatha on the living room couch, folding her legs and facing the other witch attentively.

Agatha took a moment before speaking; seeming a bit apprehensive at she said, “For this work, I will need you to unbind my magic just a bit, Wanda. I can’t just talk you through it.”

Agatha had been nervous to say this part earlier. She knew to some extent that she could walk Wanda through these protections verbally but to practice, to spend time rattling around each other’s heads, she would need her magic. She wasn’t about to let Wanda into her head when it was unguarded. There was only so much she could keep protected without her magic. She knew she had knowledge that would put Wanda at risk, would be too much for her to know all at once. She also knew she had plenty of things she would prefer to keep to herself.

Wanda looked taken aback at the statement at first then took a moment, clearly thinking this through. She didn’t fully trust Agatha, not by a long shot, but the woman had at least proven that she truly wanted to help Wanda for the time being. It was also only fair, Wanda thought, that Agatha be able to protect her own thoughts, as she would be teaching Wanda to be.

“Okay, give me you arm.”

Agatha was happily surprised, having been expecting to have to convince Wanda to see her side. She reached out her arm to Wanda, who quickly started unwinding just a few threads of magic for Agatha to work with. Watching Wanda work, she got slightly lightheaded and, though she would never admit it, just a little bit giddy. She blamed it on getting back the magic that had been itching inside her this past month, but knew that some of it also came from Wanda being so willing to trust her. She hadn’t had anyone trust her that much in a long time. She knew she was still on thin ice, had to be careful not to overstep, but she was so grateful for Wanda, was so continually surprised by her.

Wanda finished her work, giving Agatha only the smallest portion of her potential magic back to use.

“Will that be enough?” she asked.

Agatha formed a ball of energy in her hand, pulling at the strings of the world around her and capturing the ambient magic that pulsed there. She could sense it much less than when she was at full power, so it took more focus to find enough of it to work with. Wanda watched, a bit apprehensive as Agatha held this magic, the bright purple of it highlighting the witch’s stained black fingers as they shaped and controlled it. Beneath the apprehension, Wanda felt something else too. She was fascinated when she watched the way Agatha worked, transfixed by the effortless control and skill she saw in everything the woman did. For all of her seemingly carefree personality, Wanda could never help but to notice that Agatha was really so knowledgeable, so dedicated to magic and disciplined in her use of it. Even as the women fought she had been impressed by it when she wasn’t actively trying to avoid being harmed by it.

Agatha made the ball glow bright for a moment, then dissipate back out into the world before responding, “Plenty.” 

Agatha walked Wanda through the basics of ways to protect her mind without magic first. They discussed these nearly all day, practicing a form of meditation and mindfulness that allowed Wanda to control the flow of her thoughts more. Agatha checked in occasionally, attempting to read Wanda’s thoughts and being met only with what Wanda wanted to show her in that moment. This work was taxing, though, and she could once again tell when Wanda was getting tired. She knew she would be met with resistance if she asked Wanda to stop working, so she pretended that she was the one getting tired. She yawned overdramatically and made some excuse about still adjusting to having her magic back. Wanda could see right through this rouse but pretended not to, grateful that Agatha was giving her an excuse to get some rest. She continued to practice the mindfulness as she tried to fall asleep that night. It somewhat worked, but there were just so many thoughts that she still couldn’t control the flow of.

Agatha listened as she fell asleep to the room beside her own. She knew the next day would be a hard one and without really thinking about it, reached out with the little magic she did have and tried to subtly check in on Wanda. Either she was rusty or Wanda was much more perceptive than she had originally thought because she immediately heard the sounds of feet hitting the floor and walking over to her room. Wanda opened the door to her room, this time without any hesitation.

She stood in the doorway, glaring at Agatha and clearly trying to look intimidating.

She couldn’t help the slight smile that crept onto her lips as she admonished Agatha “My mind is not available to you, toots” she mocked.

Agatha gave a sheepish smile back, glad that Wanda seemed to not truly have been upset by what she had done “Just making sure you have sweet dreams” she said as innocently as she could muster.

“Don’t make me regret unbinding that magic for you.”

Agatha held her arms out in front of her; her wrists held loosely together “Oh sweetheart, you’re welcome to bind me back up anytime.”

Wanda stood staring for a moment, trying but failing to think of some witty response to this. She was surprisingly caught off guard by it, considering she was so used to Agatha’s flirty jokes. Something about this one affected Wanda differently, not because of the joke itself but because Wanda actually considered its implication for a moment. Her mind actually conjured up an unexpected image of Agatha, hands bound in red. It had never done that before and Wanda wondered for just a minute if Agatha herself had put that image there, even as she knew that she would have been able to tell if that was the case. Breaking out of these thoughts, realizing she had been stood there for a few seconds now, looking dumbfounded, she simply shook her head at the woman’s remark.

“Goodnight, Agatha.”

Wanda turned as she said this and closed the door behind her, but not before seeing Agatha’s mischievous smile grow at having flustered Wanda.

“Sleep tight, Wanda!” she yelled through the door, her satisfied smile evident in her tone.


	7. I Was Feeling Something Wasn't Right; There Was Not Another Soul in Sight

The next few days were all spent in the same comfortable routine of working on training during the day until Wanda was too tired to continue. They focused on mental guards for most of that time. Agatha was almost relieved to see that Wanda needed more time to learn this than anything else she had tried to learn so far. She wanted Wanda to learn, of course, but it was validating for once to see her have to struggle with something. Considering all the time it took, all the hard work, for Agatha to master even the most basic of incantations, she could never help but feel a kernel of jealousy at Wanda’s inherent powers. She felt all of that fade though, seeing the way Wanda knitted her eyebrows together as she focused on the latest task and seeing how excited she got with each new skill she mastered, no matter how small. Then, at the end of each day, she saw just how much Wanda exhausted herself, just how much this took out of her.

“So, how long are we going to practice these protections? I must have learned almost all of them at this point.”

Agatha laughed, “Oh Wanda, you’ve hardly even learned the basics.”

“What! No, that can’t be right.”

“We’ve hardly been practicing for a week. It took me decades to learn this.”

Wanda smirked, clearly believing that Agatha was exaggerating.

“Come on, test me. My head has got to be completely guarded by now.”

Agatha knew she wasn’t, could feel all the ways that Wanda’s thoughts were still open to the world around her. Agatha could feel just how close to the surface her emotions still were, despite the work they had been doing. She knew just how dangerous that could be and just how willing most would be to take advantage of it. Looking at Wanda now, at how far she had come in the short amount of time they had been working together and even in the time they hadn’t been, Agatha felt a pang of something new. No, not new… the situation felt too familiar, brought her back to exactly the memory she herself kept locked up. Wanda seemed so absolutely sure of herself as she sat before her now and Agatha knew exactly how that felt. She knew exactly where it could get Wanda if she wasn’t careful. If she went into any kind of battle with even the most unskilled in mind magic, they would break through her guards in seconds.

All Wanda had at her disposal to keep them out was sheer force of will. That may have been enough to keep Agatha somewhat at bay during their battle, but if she had really wanted to hurt Wanda she could have used her mind, especially the emotions that still largely controlled it, against her in seconds. She knew Wanda wouldn’t want to hear this, wouldn’t believe just how vulnerable she really was. Agatha had to show her so that she would take this a bit more seriously. Anyone else’s mind being controlled was dangerous. Wanda’s mind, the mind of the Scarlet Witch, being controlled? That would be disastrous, for everyone. She looked up at Wanda now and once again saw another witch, just as she had when Wanda had woken her from her nightmare. She felt panic set in at the thought, felt her heart race and jaw clench.

“You really think you’re ready?”

Wanda nodded, adjusted herself so that she was sitting up straight on the couch, and closed her eyes.

“I’m ready, I promise.”

Agatha sighed. She knew what she had to do to show Wanda how wrong she was. She also knew Wanda somewhat trusted her but that this trust was conditional, fragile. She had to risk breaking it though, she reasoned with herself, for Wanda’s sake. The first time they met, she had been able to sense all the ways that Wanda was holding herself back with her own self doubt. She worried now that things were headed too far in the other direction and that she was responsible. She thought back to herself as a young witch testing the limits of her powers, thought back to the others with powers she had seen in all her years. She had seen far too many of them let their belief that their power was limitless tear them apart. She knew what could happen if Wanda believed in her power too much, got so self assured that she thought she was invincible.

With all of these fears racing through her own head, Agatha took Wanda’s hands. She gripped them just a little too tight as she worked her way into Wanda’s head. Wanda could feel that her grip was too tight but before she could protest, she felt herself slipping into her own thoughts. She felt herself being dragged back into her memories, just as she had been in the basement in Westview. Agatha was past Wanda’s guard in less than a minute. Wanda’s wards were strong, she noted, but they were flawed and left pathways open that the more knowledgeable witch could find with ease. She didn’t stop after she broke through her wards.

She could still feel her heart racing and still couldn’t just see Wanda as Wanda. As she led herself through Wanda’s mind, she was also lost in her own. She thought back to all she had lost, all she had caused because of her own arrogance. She knew Wanda had already been through enough and she didn’t want her to lose anymore if she didn’t help her to control her powers in time. She couldn’t stand the thought of being responsible for that. So, she pushed further, feeling Wanda’s confusion as she did so. She took Wanda back to a memory she had seen before; one she knew would get her point across. She took her to the moment she left Vision’s body behind at the S.W.O.R.D. facility.

She stood for a moment, letting the memory construct itself around her.

Then she asked, “What made you leave, Wanda?” watching as the memory Wanda drove away from the facility.

Wanda was confused but answered, “You… You’ve seen what happened before. Vision wasn’t there anymore, he was…” she struggled to finish, feeling the crushing emptiness that had met her when she tried to feel Vision all over again, “he was gone.”

“Oh come on, that’s not an answer. You could have torn that place apart if you wanted to. Could have buried Vision just like you wanted to. What really made you leave?”

Wanda took a moment and then said, “That wouldn’t have been right. He wouldn’t have wanted me to.”

Wanda wasn’t sure why she was back here again. She couldn’t work out why Agatha had brought her back here. She could have stopped after she broke Wanda’s wards. She figured this was part of the lesson, but she sensed the same kind of desperate curiosity and frustration that she had heard in Agatha’s voice when she had been trying to figure out exactly who Wanda was in Westview and it unsettled her.

Agatha lifted her arms and switched the scene before Wanda could consider this any further. She brought up the moment the new, white Vision had shown up in Westview.

“And this is where that choice got you, isn’t it?”

They watched as the memory Wanda greeted this new Vision and as he subsequently grabbed her head and attempted to crush it. Wanda could feel the pain all over again. Not just the pain of his strength as he hurt her but the pain of having some version of her love back, only to find out that it was yet another shell, yet another Vision who was not the one she needed.

“Why are you showing me this, Agatha? Please, I know I need to work harder to guard my mind now. You’ve made your point.”

“My point?” Agatha scoffed, worried that Wanda was not getting the message. She let the scene play out behind her and said “You’re not invincible Wanda, I know you’re strong, but I need you to get this in your head now: You. Are. Not. Invincible.”

“I know that… I…”

“No!” Agatha cut her off and shook her head. “I know you say that but - ” she struggled to find the words, “I need to know that you really recognize it.”

She grabbed Wanda’s shoulders and spoke directly to her but at the same time seemed to be speaking to someone else entirely. Wanda had never heard Agatha quite like this before. She had certainly not been nice when they were fighting in Westview, but this was different. Something was wrong, she could tell. Agatha had been so stable this past week, had made Wanda feel like maybe something in her life was going right. She couldn’t work out why she would put her through this now. And with Agatha in her head like this, narrating the worst parts of her life, she was put right back in Westview, right back in everything she had run away from when she came to the cabin in the first place. She started to panic, her thoughts racing. Before she or Agatha could speak again they were brought to another scene.

All of the feelings Wanda had tried to leave behind came roiling back and pushed their way up into her conscious mind. The scene that she brought them both into was an amalgamation of two moments. She saw Vision, on his knees before her. She didn’t see it from her own perspective, though. Instead, she was standing where Thanos had stood. She couldn’t control her own arm as it reached out, just as he had, and violently ripped out the mindstone.

“Shit, shit, shit.” was all Agatha could say to herself as she was finally broken out of her own thoughts by what was now before her.

She had taken things too far, had accidentally touched a live wire in Wanda’s head. She knew that Wanda felt responsible for Vision’s death, but hadn’t realized the extent of it. She had to calm them both down, had to get them both out of here. She grabbed Wanda, using every bit of magic to try to pull her out of her own thoughts.

Instead of pulling her out of her thoughts, the scene started to shift around them again. Rather than settling on any one moment, though, memories swirled around them; the space they were in destabilized and Agatha could hardly keep up with each of the scenes she saw around them. She focused on Wanda at the center of all of it. She had wrapped her arms around herself, had collapsed just as she had on her and Vision’s lot. She hardly seemed to see the world around her as it all went by. Agatha knew that Wanda was no longer in control of the situation either.

So, she used every bit of strength she had, pulled from the ambient magic around her, unexpectedly feeling even the red hot chaos magic that Wanda exuded work its way into her spell. Finally, grasping Wanda by the arm, she pulled them both out of the disintegrating reverie. They both came back into awareness sitting across from each other on the couch, each of their consciousnesses collapsing back into reality simultaneously. Agatha moved over to Wanda, checking her for any visible signs of harm. Not seeing any, she immediately tried to set things right.

“Wanda! Wanda! I’m sorry - I tried to get you out of there with the power I have but… I’m so sorry you were dug in like a tick. I didn’t realize how far into your thoughts I had taken us until it was too late. Wanda, please look at me. Are you okay?”

Wanda was still orienting herself. Agatha could see her red powers beginning to curl themselves outward. Her emotions were not in her control again and Agatha knew it was her fault. She had to calm her down quickly. She didn’t know what she’d do if she got stuck in another of Wanda’s fantasy worlds, this time without enough of her power to keep herself lucid. Agatha put her hands on either side of her face, tried to get Wanda to face her and really see her, but Wanda still seemed to be staring right through her.

“Wanda, look at me. Please you have to listen to me, I know what you’re feeling. I know that guilt, but people like us, people like you with all this power… if we don’t learn to let those things go, we’ll bury the whole world in our grief and still not be able to put things back the way they were. Please, you have to calm down.” she moved her hands to Wanda’s shoulders and gripped a bit tighter, trying to ground her and hoping that she was at least hearing her. She continued, “You need to take a breath.”

This Wanda heard and she finally stood up, brushing off the other woman’s hands. She could hardly breath, could hardly think. She could feel the tears finally break through and burn their way down her cheeks.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you take me back there!?”

Agatha had no answer for her and just gave her another quiet apology. As Wanda started to fully process what Agatha had said to her she only got angrier. “How could you possibly know what this is like? I’ve seen your worst fear and I know you lost your coven and I’m sorry, but this is different. I lost my brother and my parents by someone else’s hand and when I _finally_ had a family, when I _finally_ had Vision and felt like I could protect him, I had to be the one to kill him and it still didn’t change anything.” Her voice cracked at this, her words coming out in angry sobs.

“Then in Westview, when I finally had him back and again I had to…” She couldn’t finish the thought and instead said, “You have no idea what it’s like to lose that much all at once. And what I did to all of those people, I - ”

Her magic continued to swirl around her, spiraling just as Agatha could see Wanda’s thoughts were. Agatha had to do something to break her out of this, had to get her to trust her to continue to help her. She stood up in front of Wanda and grabbed her hands, far gentler than before, and tried to look her in the eyes, still doing everything she could to get her back to the moment they were in. She knew what she needed to show Wanda to get her to truly trust her, even if she couldn’t make things right. She knew she had to show Wanda her true worst fear even though she protected those thoughts, those memories, more than any. Even caught off guard, Wanda sneaking up on her during their Westview battle and bringing her to her worst memories, she was able to keep her from most of it. Now, though, she let down the guards she had built around those memories for the first time in centuries.

“Wanda, I need you to look at me and focus.”

Wanda looked up and her red rimmed eyes finally seemed to begin to seen Agatha standing before her. She met Agatha’s eyes and just after she did so, Agatha closed them and Wanda’s world went dark.

Wanda was even more disoriented now, not sure where she was. She took in the new space she now found herself in. From what she could make out, she was in a small shack, clearly far older than the cabin she had been in a moment ago. It was nighttime now and the space around her was lit by a single lantern, held by someone turned away from Wanda, looking through a chest that seemed to be full of papers.

She heard the door open behind her and the woman in front of her spun around to see who was coming through it. Wanda didn’t look back at the door, instead caught off guard by who she saw before her. It was Agatha, but it was not the Agatha she knew; it was not the Agatha that she had seen just a moment ago. Instead, she saw the younger version she had seen once before. She was wearing different clothes then she had been when Wanda had taken Agatha to her worst fear. She seemed to be in some kind of nightgown, as though she had snuck out. The younger Agatha had jumped at the sound of the door, startled at first by who had come through it but then settling into a smile of recognition. Wanda turned to see who it was, just as Agatha greeted the intruder.

“Catherine! Gods, don’t scare me like that.”


End file.
